PLASTICS FIRM'S MOVE MAY POSE PROBLEMS, HEALTH OFFICIAL SAYS

DAN HARTZELL, The Morning CallTHE MORNING CALL

Bethlehem officials have touted the move of Polymer Dynamics Inc. from Lehigh Valley Industrial Park to the city's South Side as an example of inner- city business revitalization. But the city's chief health official doesn't see it that way.

Health Director Glen Cooper believes that, combined with existing industries which pose potential air quality risks, plastics manufacturers like Polymer Dynamics should not be encouraged to locate in the midst of the city's industrial center.

"It is likely that . . . hazardous substances (used by Polymer Dynamics) will not be present in sufficient concentration to be an actual health threat," Cooper wrote in a June 4 letter to Mayor Gordon Mowrer. However, "such possibility cannot be ruled out" based on available information, the letter states.

Even if the operation does notpose an unacceptable threat to human health, "the nuisance potential of a plastics manufacturing facility located midway between the city's historic district and Lehigh University is enormous," Cooper wrote.

The city is currently wrestling with a nuisance problem in the Waylite Co.'s slag processing operation just to the east, at a steel company blast furnace on the river. Residents have complained strenuously about noise and odor from the plant. The company is working on sound baffling systems, with the outcome uncertain.

The state Department of Environmental Resources (DER) is reviewing Polymer Dynamics' permit application for the planned new facility. But Cooper wrote that "the dismal record of DER in dealing with these (air quality) issues is of grave concern to me. . . . At the very least, I would recommend the city not encourage firms like Polymer Dynamics to locate in the inner city."

Cooper's letter said the company's permit application calls for no emission control equipment, and that a "strong possibility" for "an unacceptable amount of chemical odors" to result.

Mowrer said last week that the situation is still unclear, and that he wanted to meet with Cooper and Polymer officials to discuss the matter before commenting.

Community Development Director James McCarthy said he does not agree with Cooper's advice about the kinds of companies the city should try to lure to its redevelopment sites.

"Every industry has to submit to DER what emissions they are going to put into the atmosphere," McCarthy said. If the emissions do not meet state environmental standards, the agency will require emission control equipment to see that it does, McCarthy said. A company which does not continue to meet the standards can be shut down, he said.

A manufacturer of soft, shock-absorbing plastics used in protective athletic pads and running-shoe inserts, Polymer received a $120,000 research and development grant last year from the Ben Franklin Partnership program at Lehigh University.

The company's 1986 purchase of 11.2 acres of idle Bethlehem Steel Corp. property beneath the Fahy Bridge was plugged with much fanfare by the city as a way to help diversify and create new jobs in the face of declining Bethlehem Steel Corp. employment.

A state grant of $500,000 was awarded the relocation project to help the company with infrastructure development. The Pennsylvania Industrial Development Authority loaned the company $1.2 million for the $2 million new plant, which is expected to create 116 new jobs in addition to the 44 people working at the existing plant at 2202 Hangar Place in LVIP. The plant was expected to open in September, but McCarthy said the project is behind schedule.

Started only three years ago by Peoples, a former owner of several area automobile dealerships, the company is branching into industrial shock-damping uses for its products, and is developing new chemical mixtures to make products at the new facility.

Cooper noted that "other existing potential air quality problems in Bethlehem include Textile Dying and Finishing, Bennett Toyota, Waylite, Bethlehem Steel's coke ovens, Surefit's incinerator, a new sewage treatment plant upriver and the planned regional solid waste incinerator." (Cooper refers to a sewage plant for which there are no current development plans, but which Lehigh County officials see as a possible development 20 to 30 years from now at the so-called Riverside property, to the west in Salisbury Township).

The combination of many potential polluters led Cooper to recommend that the city not go out of itsway to lure more industry with the same potential - like Polymer Dynamics, in his view - to the same area of the city.

DER considers existing air quality in the area where new companies are locating, as evidenced by its review of the planned regional incinerator. The agency did not require separate air monitoring to provide "background" air quality levels in the application for the incinerator permit, since it already monitors the area to protect against Bethlehem Steel Corp. emissions.

McCarthy said Cooper's recommendation amounts to "a presumption that (Polymer is) going to be a polluter." He said that instead, "you have to assume they're going to work in good faith with DER so there won't be a problem."

Polymer officials could not be reached for comment Friday.

Cooper said last week he did not want to comment on the letter, which he described as "a confidential memo" in which "I expressed my opinion to the mayor."